In July, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the SAVE Act, which requires proof of citizenship for voter registration. The measure passed largely along party lines (only five Democrats voted for it) and was not expected to pass the Senate or receive the support of President Joe Biden (or whoever is currently in charge).
By voting on the SAVE Act, Democrats in the House of Representatives are announcing their stance on non-citizen voting
As we noted at the time:
The main topic of conversation The resistance to this measure seems to be: “But that (non-citizens being able to vote) almost never happens.”
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill to require proof of citizenship as a requirement for voter registration, a key election-year issue for Republicans despite research showing that it is extremely infrequent for noncitizens to illegally register and vote in federal elections.
We have heard this story from many sources:
Non-citizens do not participate in federal or state elections – here is the reason
Phew! That’s a relief, isn’t it? There’s just one problem: thousands of non-citizens are registered to vote even though it’s illegal for them to vote – and that’s in Virginia alone.
On Wednesday, Governor Glenn Youngkin issued an election security executive order that, among other things, listed 6,303 noncitizens who were identified and removed from Virginia’s voter rolls between January 2022 and July 2024. 6303.
6.303.
This is the number of noncitizens identified and removed from Virginia’s voter rolls under our supervision.
I am proud of my office’s work in ensuring election integrity. https://t.co/ZX1W9SUBvU
— Jason Miyares (@JasonMiyaresVA) 7 August 2024
The five-sided commandentitled “Comprehensive Election Security to Protect Legal Voters and Ensure Accurate Counting,” references the SAVE Act, lays out the importance of the initiative, and directs the Director of the Office of Elections to annually certify in writing to the Governor that certain election security procedures are in place and voter rolls are precise. It also directs the Department of Motor Vehicles to maintain a daily file of all noncitizen transactions and to report false citizenship claims to the local state attorney for prosecution. In addition, the order directs the Office of Elections and all state entities that register voters to prominently post and display relevant sections of the law concerning election-related crimes.
Critics will no doubt argue that even if non-citizens Registered choose (no doubt purely unintentionally), that does not mean that they actually claim themselves are informed about the process. Here’s the point: while many, if not most, cases of non-citizen voter registration are likely to be accidental rather than intentional/fraudulent, people who are ineligible to vote should not be registered to vote in the first place, and ensuring that they are not (or that they are removed from the voter rolls) will go a long way toward preventing illegal voting.
In addition, Youngkin’s order states, recent improvements Virginia has made to its systems for identifying people who no longer live in the state have resulted in the state also removing 79,867 deceased voters from its voter rolls. Kudos to Virginia and Governor Youngkin for their part in strengthening election integrity.
